2004

There were 45 students enrolled in ECE 457/458 Design Project I/II, the capstone design experience where students expand their abilities and develop important real world engineering problem solving skills. The students were divided into eleven groups. The details are given below.

Senior design project members, group 1, 2004

	Project Title
Group 1	Parking Information System
Group 2	Ait to Ear
Group 3	Residential Photovoltaic Power System
Group 4	No Mow Maintenance: The Self-Piloted Lawn Mower
Group 5	"Smart" Digital Radio Recorder
Group 6	Smart-House HVAC System
Group 7	Wireless Marine Throttle Control
Group 8	Fan Tray Controller
Group 9	ESD Logging System
Group 10	Digital Data Card
Group 11	Personal Beacon/Locator System

Our senior design TEAM 2 (Adam Carvalho, Joel McNamee, Steven Mooney, Christopher Yafrate; Technical Advisor: Dr. Hong Liu), RANKED SECOND PLACE at the Fourth Annual Student Design Contest hosted by Rochester Institute of Technology and partially sponsored by IEEE. There were 23 teams representing 13 institutions. This second place ranking came with a $2,000 prize. Note that the team from Carnegie Mellon University got third place. Further details on the contest can be obtained from:

http://www.rit.edu/ieee/sdc4

Group 1

Student Members:
Gauvin, Shawn M.
Jencks, Jonathan E.
Przybylek, Jason P.
Reihl, Justin

Faculty Advisor:
Chancellor Professor Gilbert Fain

Project Title:
Parking Information System

Project Description (provided by group):
The system that we are designing will monitor traffic flow in and out of parking lots on campus, preventing needless driving during peek hours. This system will display the status of each parking lot on a LED display board enabling commuters to bypass full lots. The system will be broken up into several parts with the first part consisting of a sensor such as a laser, transponder, or pressure strips. This portion will sense vehicles entering or exiting the designated parking lot.

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Left-to-right: Carvalho, Yafrate, McNamee, Mooney

Group 2

Student Members:
Carvalho, Adam J.
McNamee, Joel P.
Mooney, Steven M.
Yafrate, Christopher J.

Faculty Advisor:
Professor Hong Liu

Project Title:
Ait to Ear

Project Description (provided by group):
A wireless device needs to be created that receives a MP3 music stream from a centralized database server. The server should maintain records of individual member's music. To provide convenience, the gym members will have total control of submitting any MP3s they own a legal copy of to the server. This will be achieved by allowing the members access to the database via the Internet. They will upload their music as they see

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Left-to-right: Weyer, Kam, Pereira, Morrissey

Group 3

Student Members:
Kam, Wai Nam
Morrissey, David J.
Pereira, David M.
Weyer, Guillermo E.

Faculty Advisor:
Professor David Brown

Project Title:
Residential Photovoltaic Power System

Project Description (provided by group):
The P.V. System must perform the following functions:

Using a photovoltaic solar panel sized to meet a specified load, shall produce DC power to inverter/batteries.
The DC power must be converted to AC using an inverter.
The System must automatically switch to backup power upon loss of power from the grid.
The system must feed power to the load on demand and to the grid when the P.V. panel is producing more power than the demand of the load.

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Left-to-right: Wills, Adams, Armstrong, Cadier

Group 4

Student Members:
Adams, Michael P.
Armstrong, Christopher
Cadier, David R.
Wills, Carmel

Faculty Advisor:
Assistant Professor Howard Michel

Project Title:
No Mow Maintenance: The Self-Piloted Lawn Mower

Project Description (provided by group):
Design, implement, and test a prototype automatic pilot for a personal lawn mower. The prototype must successfully simulate the action of mowing a lawn while avoiding obstacles in its path. After initial startup, it should be completely autonomous, capable of "mowing" the lawn without user intervention. Furthermore, the prototype should be able to handle terrains of various grades and should be capable of turning itself off upon successful completion of "mowing" the lawn.

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Left-to-right: ???, Cornell, ???, Asrari

Group 5

Student Members:
Asrari, Anahita
Collins, Justin M.
Cornell, Jonathan E.
Plante, Jonathan M.

Faculty Advisor:
Professor Philip Viall

Project Title:
"Smart" Digital Radio Recorder

Project Description (provided by group):
A programmable, completely digital, radio recorder. All one need do is simply set the time, date, and the radio frequency of their favorite show, and our innovative device will automatically record that show. System Features:

User interface will allow operator to set a record time, date, and radio frequency
Allows user to program multiple recordings, or the same recording on multiple dates
System clock will determine when to activate radio and begin recording
When the system activates the radio, it will automatically adjust the frequency to the desired station
Ability to store recorded files (up to a limit) for repeated listening

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Left-to-right: Fredette, Gusiora, Northardt, Kelly

Group 6

Student Members:
Camara, Manny M.
Gaudencio, Michael
Makuch, Christopher
Rapoza, Kenneth D.

Faculty Advisor:
Chancellor Professor Lester Cory

Project Title:
Smart-House HVAC System

Project Description (provided by group):
To design and build a system with the following functionality:

Monitor air quality/CO2 level and take appropriate action when comfort levels are exceeded
Monitor CO level and alert user when safe levels are exceeded
Monitor temperature and humidity levels
Provide automated control for the HVAC system
Log and store data for later retrieval and analysis
Provide a user interface with manual control capabilities

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Left-to-right: Maloney, Grabauskas, Dunn, Freivald

Group 7

Student Members:
Dunn, John H.
Freivald, Dexter A.
Grabauskas, Scott B.
Maloney, Paul T.

Faculty Advisor:
Professor Robert Helgeland

Project Title:
Wireless Marine Throttle Control

Project Description (provided by group):
Currently, cable set-ups are high maintenance and need to be replaced commonly. There are currently wired electrical controls available on the market, but wires tend to get worn out over time just as the cable set ups. A need exists for a safe, reliable wireless throttle control.

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Left-to-right: ???, ???, Freitas, Koster

Group 8

Student Members:
Agbay, Brian M.
DiPerri, Nathan D.
Freitas, Christopher M.
Koster, Justin P.

Faculty Advisor:
Part-Time Lecturer David Lincoln

Project Title:
Fan Tray Controller

Project Description (provided by group):
A need exists for a fan tray controller circuit card that will automatically control up to nine fans based on temperature and communicates through ETHERNET TCP/IP to a host UNIX computer. The circuit card will replace an existing controller card. It will mount in and existing fan tray. (Excel Corporation)

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Left-to-right: Shoesmith, Dukes, Bakhesh, Jeznach

Group 9

Student Members:
Bakhesh, Maisa
Dukes, Brent
Jeznach, Patricia L.
Shoesmith, William C.

Faculty Advisor:
Professor Paul Fortier

Project Title:
ESD Logging System

Project Description (provided by group):
The system to be designed will be required to interface with a card reader and optionally with the ESD tester, currently located at Excel Corporation. The test results need to be stored and sent to employees and/or supervisors on a specified schedule. Data management tools are needed for information retrieval, adding/deleting/modifying user information, and an interface to modify system parameters from a database on a UNIX server. A display and keypad/keyboard connected to the microcontroller will allow the user to interact with the system. (Excel Corporation)

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Left-to-right: Keovongsa, Wang, Rashkovetsky, Bhaiya

Group 10

Student Members:
Bhaiya, Rajya Vardhan
Keovongsa, Darling
Rashkovetsky Philip L.
Wang, Zhi

Faculty Advisor:
Professor Dayalan Kasilingam

Project Title:
Digital Data Card

Project Description (provided by group):
When a digitally encrypted card is within sensor proximity, it will communicate with the sensor by transmitting personal information. The personal information consists of cardholder's identification number, full name, and personal settings for specific electronic devices. All of the cardholder's information is contained in the database, and the database will then allow authorization to the sensor that will perform multi-purpose actions.

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